Glossary

Quadcopter Terms and Definitions

ACC

Accelerometer

Acceleration sensor. The kind the NG uses does measure three axes at the same time

ACT DSL

ACTeurope Diversity Synchro Link

ACTeurope is a producer of RC receivers. DSL is a technique which they developed, called Diversity Synchro Link. DSL is a serial protocol which is used for diversity applications (diversity = receive of signals through multiple receivers to improve the overall signal quality). That protocol supplies the current values of each RC channel. ACTeurope produces a special version for MK which can also be used for the NG. But the NG also understands the DSL protocol itself, so any DSL product of ACTeurope should work. See DSL capabilites of the NG.

BB

Breakout Boards

Small boards which usually only hold a single processing unit, e.g. a sensor. These sensors are often delivered on such boards, allowing them to be exchanged more easily, by using 2.54mm connectors.

BEC

Battery Eliminator Circuit

An electronic circuit designed to deliver electrical power to other circuitry without the need for a battery. This circuit is implemented in most BLC's.

BC/BLC/BEC

Brushless-Controller / BrushLess-Controller / Brushless-Engine-Controller Brushless is a motor type (see Wikipedia). To control these kind of motors there is a controller needed. The brushless controllers are common in RC and non-RC applications, so there are many brushless controllers out there. The NG uses brushless controllers which communicate with I2C.

FC

Flight-Control

Board which performs the main flying control. This is mainly receiving the aggregated sensors data from the Sensor Board, the RC control data, running the controller algorithm and then sending its output to the actors which consist of the brushless motors and servos. On the FC, the FC is functionally running on the LPC.

FC Board

On the NG, this is the board that contains the RC Controller (with the Atmel 644 CPU) and where the LPC (the NG's main CPU) plugs into.

Gyro

Gyroscope

Gyro sensor, measures the turn velocity relating to one axis

HAL

Hardware abstraction layer

The hardware abstraction layer seperates the software from the hardware layer. But it is also the joining part between both parts of a system. You can imagine a hardware abstraction layer as a kind of translator from hardware to software and vice versa. In case of a hardware change, not the entire software is to be re-written, but "only" the HAL is if programmed properly.

HK

Hobby King

Cheap catalog company from Hong Kong, specialized for RC products

I2C

Inter-Integrated Circuit

Serial bus protocol, used for BC's (you can find more information in Wikipedia)

ISP

In-System Programming

In-System Programming allows flashing and reflashing a microcontroller inside the target system (no need to unsolder it and put it into a programmer). Often you can connect to serial connection to flash the microcontroller. The LPC2148 as well as the used Atmels support this programming mode.

IAP

In-Application Programming

In contrast to ISP In-Application Programming allows to flash a microcontroller while its application is running. It has to be supported by the running application as well as the microcontroller itself. This allows to flash a microcontroller over every type of dataconnection which he speaks, as long as the application implements it. The NG OS allows IAP over USB.

MCU

Mikrocontroller Unit

The NG uses three MCU's:

• Atmel ATmega328p: Sensor board controller
• NXP LPC2148 ARM7: On a own board, but belongs to the flight control
• Atmel ATmega644p: Flight control RC/Servo/COM-Controller

MK

Mikrokopter

Big community around the most popular multicopter. Started and still driven by Ingo Busker and Holger Buss. The plattform is getting more and more closed (source code).

NG

Next Generation

Refers to the UAVP - The Next Generation project, in contrast to the first generation UAVP (aka Wolferl, name of the initiator) - The Original

The term originates from a joke, spoken in the first days of the development of the UAVP-NG:

Wolfgang Mahringer (Wolferl), the author of the original UAVP, is a big Star Trek fan. There were several Star Trek series and the first of these was later called Star Trek - The Original Series in contrast to the second series called Star Trek - The Next Generation, where a new captain explores the universe in a new ship called Enterprise similar to the old one from the original series.

So it came, that we called the our multicopter project the UAVP - The Next Generation or in short UAVP-NG and Wolfgang's project was called UAVP - The Original One.

NGOS

Next Generation Operating System

Operating system of the Next Generation UAVP (Running on the ARM7 and the two Atmel CPUs)

See Documentation/TheNGOS for further details.

PPM

Pulse-position modulation

Modulation type for signals. Often used between RC transmitters/receivers. M message bits are encoded by transmitting a single pulse in one of 2M possible time-shifts. (See Wikipedia

PWM

Pulse-wide modulation

Modulation type for signals. Is used to control servos and standard BC's. The term duty cycle describes the proportion of on time to the regular interval or period of time; a low duty cycle corresponds to low power, because the power is off for most of the time. Duty cycle is expressed in percent, 100% being fully on. (See Wikipedia)

PCM

Pulse-code modulation

A digital modulation type for signals. Also used between better RC transmitters/receivers. PCM is a digital representation of an analog signal where the magnitude of the signal is sampled regularly at uniform intervals, then quantized to a series of symbols in a numeric (usually binary) code. (See Wikipedia)

RC

Radio-Controlled

Refers to the radio controlled models as well as radio control equipment (transmitter, receiver)

RC Controller

Refers to the software that receives commands from the pilot via RC, then processes them and finally passes them on to the flight controller (which is handled by the LPC board on the NG). The Atmel 644 on the FC board is performing this task.

SB

Sensor Board

Board which controls the sensors (Gyro, ACC, compass, ...)

SB Controller

Refers to the software that processes sensory input, passing them on to the flight controller. On the NG system, the Atmel 328 CPU is responsible for this task. Note, however, that it only processes the compass input, calculating attitude from it, while most other sensors (Gyro, ACC) on the SB board are processed directly by the main CPU (LPC).

SPCM

Similar to PCM, but with a higher rate, allowing a few more channels (10-12 instead of 7-8)

UART

Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter

Serial data transmitting, often used with RS-232 (aka COM-Port on every PC)